Symmetry Discovered: Concepts and Applications in Nature and Science
By Joe Rosen
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About this ebook
Symmetry provides an insight into the way nature works and is often used by scientists and technologists to help solve problems. Symmetry has numerous other applications as well — with more being discovered all the time in science, the arts and other fields of human endeavor.
This classic work provides an excellent introduction to the basic concepts and terminology (including, optionally, group theory), as well as lucid discussions of geometric symmetry, other symmetries and appropriate symmetry, symmetry in nature, uses of symmetry in science and much more.
Readers wishing to pursue specific topics will find many references that reflect the author's wide reading in the subject and his own obvious enthusiasm. For this edition, Dr. Rosen has provided a new preface, solutions to the problems, and an addendum to the bibliography.
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Symmetry Discovered - Joe Rosen
Copyright
Copyright © 1975 by Cambridge University Press
Copyright © 1998 by Joe Rosen
All rights reserved.
Bibliographical Note
This Dover edition, first published in 1998, is an unabridged and slightly corrected republication of the work first published by The Cambridge University Press in 1975. The author has prepared a new preface, additions to the bibliography, and solutions to selected problems for this edition.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rosen, Joe, 1937–
Symmetry discovered : concepts and applications in nature and science / Joe Rosen. — Dover ed.
p. cm.
Originally published: Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1975.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
9780486145006
1. Symmetry. I. Title.
Q172.5.S95R67 1998
501’.5122 — DC21
98-9334
CIP
Manufactured in the United States by Courier Corporation
29433102
www.doverpublications.com
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Foreword
Preface
Preface to the Dover Edition
I - Symmetry: what? where? how?
2 - The language of symmetry
3 - Geometric symmetry
4 - Other symmetries and approximate symmetry
5 - Symmetry in nature
6 - Uses of symmetry in science
Conclusion
Bibliography
Addendum to the Bibliography
Solutions to Problems
Index
To the memories of
EMMY NOETHER
and
HERMANN WEYL
Foreword
This foreword is intended for those readers already familiar with the subject. If you are among the uninitiated, however, even though this book was prepared especially for you, I suggest you skip on to the preface.
The book you are about to read was conceived, gestated and published as a result of my discovery of a desert. When I became convinced some time ago that the concepts and the principles of application of symmetry can, and should be, taught and understood much earlier than at the graduate or post-doctoral level, an exploratory expedition into bookland disclosed that between the coastal plain of a couple of children’s books and the heights of Weyl’s Symmetry there was nothing but barren wilderness. So here we are.
How can this attempt to make the desert bloom be described in relation to Weyl’s classic? Mainly, it is intended for quite a different audience. While Weyl was addressing the faculty of Princeton University and the Institute of Advanced Study, my ‘typical’ reader is an advanced high school student or first or second year college student, interested in or specializing in the physical sciences. Additionally, our coverages of material differ in breadth and depth. For example, I discuss the symmetry principle and its application and work out several examples. Weyl does not. On the other hand, he goes into the esthetic aspect of symmetry, which I refrain from doing.
In order to reduce the chance of misunderstanding, I would like to explain here the approaches I chose to use for certain subjects. The most problematic of these is group theory. Now not only is group theory the most suitable mathematical language for symmetry, but the two are actually inseparable, since any group defines a symmetry (an equivalence relation) through its orbits, and, conversely, any symmetry (equivalence relation) defines a group. So group theory should be included in the presentation. Yet not every ‘typical’ reader is inclined to the abstraction of group theory, and many potential readers might be put off by it. Also, nothing can really be done with group theory at this level. So perhaps it should better be left out. The approach taken here is to include group theory as a distinct ‘trail’, to segregate all group theory material into clearly marked concentrations. Then he who will, will read everything, and he who won’t, will skip the group theory section and all the group theory paragraphs throughout the text.
The way I present geometric symmetry is liable to raise some eyebrows. The discussion is divided, as usual, into separate discussions for 1-, 2- and 3-dimensional systems. But instead of defining the transformations for each kind of system within the dimensionality of the system, geometric transformations are always defined in 3-dimensional space. Thus, for example, reflection of a 1-dimensional system is plane reflection, with the mirror perpendicular to the direction of the system and intersecting it at the reflection center. This approach has, I feel, certain pedagogical advantages. Moreover, it helps emphasize the fact that all physical systems are really 3-dimensional, although for some purposes they might be considered 2- or 1-dimensional.
There are some terms (such as ‘lattice’) that I chose to use somewhat loosely, and hope that all cases of loose terminology found in this book are among these.
One subject that could usefully be studied after symmetry is approximate symmetry. This should include stability considerations, that is, consideration of the symmetry and approximate symmetry of an effect, given the approximate symmetry of a cause. Here is the den where ‘spontaneous symmetry breaking’ lurks. However, of all this wealth I chose to include only a brief discussion of the general idea of approximate symmetry, with no mention of general formalism or of stability.
For the ‘typical’ reader this book should be fairly self-contained. Yet a very large bibliography is included and referred to extensively. My intention is to arouse the reader’s curiosity about any of various fields where symmetry plays a role and to tempt him into further reading.
My hopes for this book are that it will fill the niche for which it was designed and that it will encourage other symmetry-minded people to try their hand at rectifying the dearth of published material on symmetry.
Preface
They expounded the reazles
For sneezles
And wheezles,
The manner of measles
When new.
They said ‘If he freezles
In draughts and in breezles,
Then PHTHEEZLES
May even ensue.’
(A.A. Milne: Now We Are Six)
Symmetry is like a disease. Or, perhaps more accurately, it is a disease. At least in my case; I seem to have a bad case of it. Let me tell you how this came about.
I must always have had a tendency to symmetry. An early mild symptom was a special liking for series of similar things: pads of paper, piles of filing cards, sets of pencils and crayons. My drawings and doodlings inclined to periodicity. Though a lover of serious music, I have long had a special place in my heart for marches (with their strict rhythm). But things took a turn for the worse when I started work toward my Ph.D. degree. I had decided to do my thesis research in the field of what was then called theoretical elementary particle physics. (Since the question of elementarity is an open one, we now prefer to call the field ‘high energy physics’ or ‘physics of particles and fields’.) My thesis adviser introduced me to this field through the study of group theory and its application to elementary particle symmetries, and I finished my Ph.D. with a thesis entitled ‘Several aspects of particle symmetries and their origins’.
Then, after its periods of dormancy and incubation, the disease broke out in ever increasing severity. Although I have retained an interest in the physics of particles and fields, most of my research has been devoted to the mathematical and theoretical aspects of symmetry in general and the principles of its application in physics. I have become an avid symmetry fan, addicted beyond cure, utterly convinced of the fertility of symmetry in scientific study and research as a unifying, clarifying and simplifying factor. Moreover, far from being painful, these severe symptoms afford much pleasure, as I find in those aspects of symmetry with which I am concerned an esthetic enjoyment akin to that brought about by the visual and auditory aspects of symmetry, symmetry in art and music.
And now, as the very writing of this book proves, the disease has reached its contagious stage. I am out looking for converts and will attempt to infect you, the reader, if only slightly, with the symmetry disease. In the following chapters I will introduce you to symmetry and to various fields, mostly in the physical sciences, where symmetry plays a role. A bibliography is appended and referred to often in the text (my method of indicating references is explained there), in the hope that you will, after or while reading this book, follow up by additional reading those aspects of symmetry or symmetry related fields that arouse your interest or curiosity. I have scattered problems throughout the text and hope that you will attempt to work them out, since I think that this helps one understand better. But if you choose to skip them, this should not hamper your reading.
Group theory is the mathematical language of symmetry. A section on group theory is included in chapter 2, and all group theoretical discussions thereafter are confined to clearly marked paragraphs. This material is optional. I recommend attempting to read it as it appears in the text. But if you find it too abstract, don’t hesitate to skip it. In that case you might try it again after the first reading.
There is all too little literature on symmetry in general. In fact the only other book I know of is Hermann Weyl’s Symmetry (SYM, 1). I strongly recommend this book. It is a must for anyone who finds that he has caught the symmetry bug.
I would like to express my gratitude to the following: the Brown University Theoretical High Energy Physics Group, and especially Professor David Feldman, for their hospitality at the time this book was conceived; Professor Nathan Rosen and Professor Gerald E. Tauber for reading an early version of the manuscript and offering helpful suggestions; the staff of the Tel-Aviv University Library of Exact Sciences and Engineering, and especially Ms Tamar Harari, Director, and Ms Celina Sold, for their valuable assistance; the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and the Faculty of Exact Sciences of Tel-Aviv University for grants covering technical expenses connected with preparing the book for publication; the Tel-Aviv University Department of Physics and Astronomy for some of the typing; the Israel National Commission for Basic Research for a research grant during the period of which the final version of the manuscript was prepared; Mr Stanley Himmelhoch for his excellent photographic work; Dr Amos Ar, Mr Moshe Ben-Dov, Dr Dan Eisokowitch and Dr Yaakov Friedman for their help; Professor Morton Hamermesh for an enlightening discussion; several anonymous referees for useful comments; and the editorial staff of Cambridge University Press for their help and cooperation.
May 1975
J.R.
Preface to the Dover Edition
Since the original appearance of Symmetry Discovered: Concepts and Applications in Nature and Science, published 22 years ago by Cambridge University Press, much has developed in the world of symmetry and in our understanding of nature through science. Many more books and articles on symmetry have been published. I would like to mention three books that are related to Symmetry Discovered. Two are more advanced presentations than Symmetry Discovered and are related to it by having a common author. They are my own A Symmetry Primer for Scientists, published by Wiley in 1983, and Symmetry in Science: An Introduction to the General Theory, a revision and expansion of Symmetry Primer, published by Springer-Verlag in 1995. I would also like to mention L.V. Tarasov’s This Amazingly Symmetrical World, published by Mir in 1986 (an English translation of a revision of the 1982 Russian edition). This book, like Symmetry Discovered, is an elementary presentation of symmetry.
An additional development was the founding, in Budapest in 1989, of the International Society for the Interdisciplinary Study of Symmetry which publishes the journal Symmetry: Culture and Science. Numerous conferences on symmetry and on topics related to symmetry have also taken place.
Symmetry considerations have been popping up more and more in diverse fields in science, in the arts, and in other human endeavors. In science, for example, I recently learned of analyses of animal gaits in symmetry terms. Not long ago the popular science press was telling us about investigations into the importance of symmetry for sexual selection. And we now know much more about the symmetry aspects of the fundamental constituents of matter and their interactions. We even have well developed ideas about how they relate to the evolution of the universe.
Yet, although the original edition of Symmetry Discovered has been out of print for quite some time, I have often been asked how it might be obtained. In order to satisfy the demand, I suggested to Dover Publications that they publish a reprint edition. This Dover edition of Symmetry Discovered is the result. It is a reprint of the original, with the addition of this preface, solutions to the problems, and an addendum to the bibliography.
I would like to express my thanks to the Dover staff and to all those who have helped me keep abreast of symmetry developments over the years.
December 1997
Joe Rosen
I
Symmetry: what? where? how?
Sometimes he thought sadly to himself, ‘Why?’ and sometimes he thought, ‘Wherefore?’ and sometimes he thought, ‘Inasmuch as which?’–and sometimes he didn’t quite know what he was thinking about.
(A.A. Milne: Winnie-the-Pooh)
What is symmetry?
Consider a square of definite size, located at a definite position in space, and having a definite orientation (fig. 1.1). Among all possible actions that can be performed on this square, there are some that will leave it in a condition indistinguishable from its original condition (fig. 1.2). Which are these?
Since the square must remain a square, all changes of shape are eliminated (fig. 1.3). The square must retain its size, so size changing is forbidden (fig. 1.4).
The position of the square in space cannot be altered. We must therefore reject any movement which displaces its center (fig. 1.5).
Let us rotate the square. To preserve position the axis must pass through the center. If the axis is perpendicular to the plane of the square, any rotation will leave the square in its original